Developing writing skills

LO: to explore how a writer’s use of language affects the reader’s

thinking and understandings.

Key term :

Consonance is a literary device that refers to the

repetition of the same consonant sounds in a line of
text. The focus, in the use of consonance, is on the
sound made by consonants and not necessarily the
letters themselves. E.g. :Pitter patter
Do now
• How important do you think language choice is when creating mood,
atmosphere and tone ?
Introduction
• Language choice is key when creating mood, atmosphere and tone. Writers
use different techniques depending on the effect they want to achieve.
• The language choices you make when writing can influence the way a reader
responds to your stories.
• In this lesson, we will be focusing on how to use language for effect.
Creating mood and atmosphere
• Mood is the target emotion – how you want the reader to feel. Atmosphere creates and
maintains that emotion through language, imagery, and specific detail.
• Mood and atmosphere is most clearly shown in the choice of setting (place and time).
• For example, in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, she describes a storm:
About midnight, while we still sat up, the storm came rattling over the Heights in full
fury. There was a violent wind, as well as thunder, and either one or the other split a tree
off at the corner of the building: a huge bough fell across the roof, and knocked down a
portion of the east chimney-stack, sending a clatter of stones and soot into the kitchen-
fire.

Here, Brontë has selected verbs such as ‘rattling’, ‘split’ and ‘fell’ to
suggest the intensity of the storm. Adjectives such as ‘violent’
reinforce this idea.

Repeating the sounds in ‘rattling’ and ‘clatter’ - the consonance of

Your turn..
• In the following description of a storm in The Woman in Black, which language
technique does the author, Susan Hill use?
The house felt like a ship at sea, battered by the gale that came roaring across
the open marsh. Windows were rattling everywhere and there was the sound of
moaning down all the chimneys of the house and whistling through every nook
and cranny.

A. Consonance, onomatopoeia and verb choices to show the noise and

intensity of the storm Look out for the bonus
B. Personification answer !

'battered', 'roaring', 'rattling', 'moaning' and 'whistling' are all verbs which use
onomatopoeia. 'Battered' and 'rattling' also use consonance with the double 'tt' sound.
Creating tone
• Tone is the way an author shows their own or their character's feelings about
something. For example, they might use a humorous, angry or sarcastic tone.
• In the opening to The Lie Tree Frances Hardinge creates a bleak, fearful tone
– the choice of words channel the feelings of the character, Faith:
The boat moved with a nauseous, relentless rhythm, like someone chewing
on a rotten tooth. The islands just visible through the mist also looked like
teeth, Faith decided.

Label the language feature used in this

example
 What is narrative writing ?
LO:To understand the conventions of narrative writing

Starter : Think back to the last book you enjoyed reading. What
particularly stood out to you and why ? Discuss with your
partner
Conventions of narrative writing
1. Contains a sequence of events.
2. Events often present a problematic situation and then work towards
this coming to a climax or resolution.
3. Relies upon the characters to ‘show’ how the story unfolds as well as a
narrator to ‘tell’.
4. Characters are well described so that readers are able to empathise
with them.
5. Contains descriptive detail in order to make settings and characters
vivid.
6. Utilises dialogue to develop the reader’s understanding .
Using vocabulary for effect
• Vocabulary is the words we know and use. The best way to expand
your vocabulary is by reading and picking up new words from other
writers
• Using more sophisticated vocabulary and expanding our vocabulary
can make our writing more powerful and memorable.
• As a writer it is up to you to make your writing as gripping as possible
and vocabulary is a key tool to do this.
How does Hill use setting to create a sense of
threat and danger?
'Some minutes later, I could not tell how many, I came out of my reverie, to realise that I could no longer see very far

in front of me and when I turned around. I was startled to find that Eel Marsh House, too, was invisible, not because

the darkness of evening had fallen, but because of a thick, damp sea-mist that had come rolling over the marshes

and enveloped everything, myself, the house behind me, the end of the causeway path and the countryside ahead. It

was a mist like a damp, clinging, cobwebby thing, fine and yet impenetrable. It smelled and tasted quite different from

the yellow filthy fog of London; that was choking and thick and still, this was salty, light and pale and moving in front

of my eyes all the time. I felt confused, teased by it, as though it were made up of millions of live fingers that crept

over me, hung on to me and then shifted away again. My hair and face and the sleeves of my coat were already

dampComment onof: moisture. Above all, it was the suddenness of it that had so unnerved and disorientated me.'
with a veil
• Use of language
• Imagery
• Vocabulary choice
• How the weather is used to create atmosphere
Plenary
• In Edgar Allan Poe’s, The Tell-Tale Heart the narrator decides to commit
murder:

When the old man looked at me with his vulture eye a cold feeling went
up and down my back; even my blood became cold. And so, I finally
decided I had to kill the old man and close that eye forever!

The narrator uses a metaphor to describe the man’s eye as a ‘vulture eye'. Discuss the effect of this feature with
your partner .
What are the aims and purpose of narrative
writing ?
• Narrative writing is writing which tells a story by creating a sequence of events and a group of characters who
experience them. The aim is to engage the reader's empathy and interest.
• Which text could be an extract from the start of a piece of narrative writing? How do you know ?

“I never knew why my mother wasn’t close to her brother, Hal. I can guess. It’s possible that he
didn’t help out financially with their parents. It’s possible that she didn’t like his wife, Eleanor.
It’s possible that she resented forever the fact that her parents had found the money to send
him to Columbia but made her go to a public college. Who knows? The secret is dead and
buried.”

Waves swell and grow in the wind, starting out small and slow, far from shore, but rising and
rushing as they approach the rocks where they crash and smash, flinging their salty spray high.
This spray seems to hang in the air for a moment, before dropping to the ground. Then, a pause
– a lull – before the next wave arrives.
Understanding how to develop narrative
writing
• Narrative writing is structured so that the reader’s focus is on what is
happening rather than what they can imagine.
Introduction Rising action Climax Falling action Resolution
Setting and Events occur, An event which Solution to the Everything is
characters are which lead to a brings events that rounded off
introduced climax of some everything to a have happened and the loose
kind head/crisis are found ends tied up
occurs

Think of a famous story or narrative that you know well and see if you can split it into the
five parts listed above
How is narrative writing developed ?
• The key to developing a piece of narrative writing is to add detail and dialogue so that what is
happening is shown, rather than told.
• Look at how you could develop the simple sentence below into a paragraph.
Peter walked into the office and waved the sheaf of bills in front of Igor’s face
Add detail What it adds
Peter stalked into the ramshackle office, This tells us what things looked like but
slamming the scratched and peeling door also suggests that the business may not
hard against the door frame. be profitable or that it is badly managed .

Add dialogue What it adds

‘How long did you think you could keep This tell us that Igor has been dishonest
these hidden away then?’. Peter spoke and suggests that Peter is furious
rapidly and with an edge of steel.

Igor looked up slowly from the pile of letters covering his desk Add dialogue to
and brushed his hair out of his tired eyes this sentence
Creating character and setting
LO:To choose effective words to describe characters and settings
Give me one simple sentence about this man
• Bob is a middle aged man who is a father to three children: two boys and
a girl. His children are aged 15 to 22 and only the fifteen year boy,
Callum, lives at home, in Salford.
• Bob is very angry because when he came home from work, he works on
a building site, he found his house had been broken into. He went all
over the house and found several things were missing but he is most
upset because when he went into the attic, he found his most treasured
possession had also been taken.
• Bob’s most treasured possession was a football trophy he won when he
was 15. He was a talented footballer when he was younger, he had once
had a trial for Manchester United. Bob feels so upset that he’s lost this
but what is upsetting Bob most is that he suspects his son, Callum, may
be involved.
What did I do?
• I created a name, a family, a past, feelings and thoughts for my
character.
• Now you are going to do the same........
Make notes in your copy book. You
will need this later !
Developing your character
• Character can be shown through the things characters do, what they say, what they look like, and what they own.
• What do you find out about Crooks, the stable-hand in Of Mice and Men, from the extract below?
Choosing effective words
• Although you must be careful not to confuse descriptive and narrative writing,
it is important to include descriptive details in a narrative because they are
what bring characters and places alive for readers.

Writing task.

‘The Journey'. Write the opening chapter of a story with this title. The story
must be based on the character that you wrote about earlier in the lesson.
Write about 240 to 300 words.

Extension : write the ending to a story titled ‘The fire’.

Plenary
• Take one minute to compose two statements in your head to explain what
we have learnt and how we have learnt it.
Coursework 2
Writing to narrate
• The purpose of coursework 2 is to produce a piece of narrative writing of 500–800 words
in length
• Features of fiction writing should be evident, such as, but not restricted to, description,
characterisation and convincing detail.
• These should be incorporated into a defined and structured plot.

Mark awarded for content and structure = 10 Marks awarded for style and accuracy= 15
Skills required to write fiction
• structural (providing characters and details that later become
significant; flashbacks; time lapses; different types of beginning and
end)
• descriptive/linguistic (providing pictures to clarify and words that
define)
• imaginative (providing storylines that are gripping but realistic;
selecting essential details which are relevant to the aim of the story;
creating interesting dialogue that fulfils a function)
Avoid…
• stories which offer a series of events without development of character,
setting or stylistic language choices.
• stories that are muddled with poor or illogical links between events and
details in different parts of the narrative.
• badly managed climaxes and insubstantial, ill thought-out endings. Stories
that contain too many characters tend to be unsuccessful too.
Tips…
• In a fictional narrative, the first paragraph should hook the reader and grab their attention.
You might do this by describing the setting and giving specific detail in a way that sets the
tone for the rest of the story.
• Aim to finish your writing in a convincing way, providing a realistic and believable ending to
the narrative
• It is easiest to write in past tense, describing events as if they happened a few days, weeks or
years ago. Be clear about the distance in time and use the same tense throughout your
writing.
• One way to plot a narrative is to follow a story arc. This structure uses an opening that hooks
the reader and sets the scene, followed by an introduction to the character’s thoughts and
feelings, a development of the storyline, a turning point and finally a resolution.

Often the best short stories are based on a single plot idea, have a
maximum of two main characters (sometimes one is even more
appropriate) and are set in places familiar to the writer.
Paragraphing
You can also use paragraphs to highlight tense or significant moments
within your story. For example, a one-sentence paragraph is likely to
add tension or highlight a turning point in a narrative.
Coursework options
• The voice in my head
• Write with the words: ‘I knew it was the last time I would see her/him.’
(Beginning, middle or end)
• The fugitive
• A memorable journey
• An unexpected visitor

Task :
Start thinking about and planning coursework 2